Running
by MarvelsOnlyFan
Summary: After 15 year old Jess and Beth escape from a bandit camp, they end up falling right into a group of survivors led by Lee Everette. Some Ben Paul x OC later on
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Warning, this is a self insert fanfic. Please don't kill me. **

**It's based in the first season of the video game, so obviously will contain major spoilers. But I will change parts here and there to keep it interesting!**

* * *

Beth was so tired she could have slept there and then.

However that wouldn't have been that great an idea, she was running through a forest escaping from both a group of bandits and the undead.

The bandits had been holding the girl captive, and were receiving small packages of food and medicine from a nearby group of survivors on the terms that they wouldn't kill her, or Jess, the other girl who they caught. But the boy who had apparently been sneaking them the packages had missed one single deadline, and everything went to hell.

However, this had given Beth and Jess the perfect opportunity to escape.

The latter easily ran though the forest, but her friend was having a bit more trouble keeping up with her, and was starting to fall behind.

"Wait!" She called out, worried she had abandoned her.

"Just hurry up!" Jess slowed down for a few seconds, grabbed her companion's hand and speed up even more than before.

Shouts of bandits could be heard not too far behind them, and they sounded as if they were turning back. The two weren't taking any chances, and kept running.

* * *

"Chuck gave me sweets! Ben too!" Clementine gleefully showed her guardian the pack of sweets, while the older boy looked more cautious as he chewed through the pack. The third child, Duck, was huddled up to his mother, suffering from a high fever.

All of a sudden, two figures crashed through a nearby bush, collapsing onto the floor. Lee immediately drew his gun on the duo, and Chuck held his guitar up in a way that suggested he would be willing to use it as a weapon.

"Woah," the first one to stand up was the shorter of the two, who wore glasses and had red-blonde hair down past her shoulders. She couldn't have been any older than 14. "We're not a threat. You don't need to hold that thing to my face." She seemed calm as she held her hands out to them, showing she wasn't armed.

The second girl was slightly taller, with scruffy brown hair. She looked about the same age. She looked as if she might have attacked, but her friend shook her head, gesturing for her to show she was unarmed.

The first thing Ben Paul noticed however, was that they were wearing the same school sports jackets as him.

* * *

"How did you get here?" The dark skinned man with the gun, questioned the girls.

"We were escaping from bandits, we weren't looking where we going, and we tripped through that bush. As I said before, we're not going to cause you any trouble, you outnumber us anyhow." He lowered his gun from Beth, but instead raised it to Jess.

"Why were you running from the bandits?" He asked, readying the gun against her head. She looked down at her friend who she saw giving her the look that said

'don't-do-anything-stupid-alright?'

"We'd been staying on a farm for a while with some other girls our age but I got nosey and found a room full of sharp metal things and blood so we snuck off in the night." She spoke quickly, but paused to check for a reaction.

" 's Dairy farm?" The man asked, to which she replied with a short nod.

"Then three of us got caught be the bandits, and we've been there the last few weeks. Until we escaped."

"Three of you?" The older man, who had now set down his guitar looked inquisitive.

"She refused to eat anything the bandits fed her, and she got sick pretty quickly. They didn't want to keep her in case she got them all sick, so she was killed and left for the undead." Beth had spoken up again, and the gun had been lowered completely.

"We can leave right now, sorry for startling you."

* * *

Lee nodded, and held his arm out as a gesture for them to pass, but Ben jumped up quickly.

"Wait!" He called out, beckoning them back.

"What are you doing?" Lee said through his teeth.

"You can't just leave them!" He exclaimed. "They're just kids. Like me. Or Duck. Or Clem."

He knew they were from his school, and after the loss of Travis, he was determined to keep _something_ familiar safe.

"They'll be fine alone! They'd just be more mouths to feed, okay?" Lee was starting to lose his patience.

"Please, Lee. They don't exactly look like they'll need much food. And the more the merrier, hm?" Lee looked at Ben as he pleaded, and had to give in. He was right, they were just kids. Not to mention Lee didn't want to turn out like Lilly. Keeping a look out for more survivors had turned out well so far. Mostly. But he was pretty sure these two weren't cannibalistic killers.

"Fine. I'm sorry, you two are welcome to travel with us." He smiled warmly.

* * *

"Give us a second." Jess said, dragging Beth behind her.

"We should go with th-"

"No." Jess cut her off mid-sentence.

"But we need a group!" Beth exclaimed.

"What happened the last time we trusted strangers? Hm? We ended up on a cannibal farm!" Jess had started to raise her voice, and the others looked over.

"No one we've seen so far had kids with them. Especially not sick ones!" Beth pointed to the youngest boy, then to the older one. "Besides, I know the guy in the blue jacket. He was that really dorky kid on the basketball team." Jess appeared to have warmed to the idea slightly, but was still suspicious.

"Why would we be any better off with a group? We can be fine alone. Sneak around, steal food and supplies, hide in trees..."

"We're children Jess! We can't protect ourselves from animated corpses, or cannibals, or bandits, and we need to stop pretending we can! Plus they have a train. A TRAIN. Let that sink in. Transport. Now you can go if you want, but I'll be staying here." Beth crossed her arms and stood still.

"You wouldn't let me go alone." She smirked.

"You're right, I wouldn't, but we might seriously survive with these guys. So come on." She held her hand out to her friend, inviting her to stay.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then she took the offer, and they walked back over to the group.

* * *

"Have you made a decision?" Chuck asked, to which the two girls nodded in unison.

"We'd like to stay with your group." They replied.

"Great! So you're Beth," Lee pointed to the blonde girl in the glasses. "And you're Jess?" He pointed to the taller girl.

* * *

Names were exchanged, and the girls sat down on a log with the group. Lee went of to explore the nearby area, Chuck started playing his guitar and Clementine offered the duo some of her sweets.

Jess looked over to see a man with a funny-looking moustache get out of the train and walk over towards them. He didn't notice them at first, as he walked directly over to who they assumed were his son and wife.

"How's Duck doing? He any better?" The man spoke with a playful, positive tone, but the look in his eyes told a different story. He was scared.

His wife shook her head, and the man turned and looked at the ground, before noticing the two new members sitting on the log.

"Well...Who are you?" He asked, waving his hands at the girls.

"Beth and Jess. We accidentally ran into your group, but we were invited to stay." Beth introduced the two. "You got that train working yet?"

"Yeah, I was just about to tell you all to hop on! You hear that Duck? We going to the boat!" He messed up his son's hair as he spoke to him. "I'm Kenny by the way."

Jess looked over to the ill child, and noticed something on his ankle.

"Beth," she whispered as everyone stood up. "He's bitten!" A short intake of breath from her friend showed her surprise, and the two briefly wondered what to do.

"We already know." The boys mother turned to them as they discussed what to do. "We're trying to see if there's any improvement but... We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Her motherly tone and soft expression just caused the girls to trust her. They climbed into the train cart, sitting down in their own corner away from the infected boy. They didn't want to be close by if he turned.


	2. Chapter 2

Beth awoke as she heard the car door open next to her. Lee walked in, straight over to Katjaa who muttered something to him. It was starting to get dark, but she could see the mother cradling Duck much closer than before. She saw something in the woman's eyes that she'd never seen quite so strongly. What she saw was true fear, worse than anything they had experienced while at the farm, or the bandit camp, or while running through the trees. This was a mother who knew her son was dying in her arms.

Katjaa noticed the girl watching her, and tried to give her some sort of reassurance, a smile at least, but she couldn't manage it. Not now. She knew the time was almost here, and she knew what she would do. As much as she hated the idea of living without her baby, she had to stay strong for Kenny. She could look after Clementine, maybe that would give her some purpose. That was something she desperately needed in these times.

* * *

The train skidded to a halt, and both Lee and Kenny ran into the back cart. Jess and Ben both woke up with a start, and Chuck jumped to his feet. Beth noticed Duck stirring, but thought nothing of it.

Big mistake.

Suddenly, Duck made a loud groaning sound, and sunk his teeth right into his mother's shoulder. Her agonising scream was echoed in Kenny's scream of horror as his son tore into her flesh.

Ben panicked and clumsily tried to kick the undead Duck away from Katjaa, but instead directed him towards Clementine, who he immediately pounced on. Screaming, she tried to push him away. Just as his jaw approached her arm, a loud gunshot was heard, and he slumped to the floor.

The group turned to see Kenny holding a gun, eyes wide and staring where his son lay. His attention was drawn to his wheezing wife, who was currently bleeding heavily from her shoulder and stomach.

"Katjaa! It's alright. You'll be alright." Kenny threw down his gun, rushing to his wife's side. "What do I need to do? How can I save you?" He spoke quickly, tears filling his eyes.

"I love you, Kenny." Katjaa smiled warmly as she reached her hand out to the left. She blinked back tears as she spoke. "I love you so much..."

Katjaa took hold of the gun on the floor, and the next the the group knew, her brains splattered the wall behind her.

"NO!" Kenny fell forward, yelling at the ground.

"Fucking... God fucking damn!" He picked up his hat and threw it out the train, kicking the floor as he jumped outside.

The rest of the group looked at the bodies, dumbfounded. Clementine had run to Lee and was hugging him, trying to get the images of what just happened out of her head. Lee himself just stood looking at the bodies. Chuck looked at the ground solemnly while Kenny could still be heard screaming and cursing outside. Ben just stood there, wide eyed and shaking his head vigorously.

Neither Beth or Jess knew how to react to what just happened. Sure, they hadn't known either of them for very long, but with the trauma of what just happened, Beth found herself unable to function. Jess noticed how much she was shaking, and guided her out of the train. She helped her to sit down outside, and placed her hands on her friend's shoulder.

"What... What's happening? I can't believe... Oh god!" Beth stumbled over her words, still trying to fathom what had just happened. One moment they were there, the next, gone.

Kenny's curses continued as he kicked and hit anything in sight, even shooting the tree a few times. Jess stood up and tried to approach him, slowly, so he didn't jump and shoot her too. He turned to face her, and they froze for a second, before Kenny collapsed to the ground again.

"It was... It was all my fault!" His eyes were red and puffy, and his lower lip trembled as he tried to speak clearly. "I was... I couldn't stop the train in time! She could still be alive, if I'd just stopped the train!"

Jess had no idea what to do, she'd never been in a situation like this before.

"It wasn't your fault! Maybe she should have kept her distance from him or something..." As soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately regretted it.

Kenny lunged at her, pinning her again the side of the train. She could see she had made him mad.

"You think this was her fault?! You think she should have kept her distance from her dying son? My dying son! You think she could have just left him to suffer while she did nothing? Is that what you think?!" He spat the words at her, wanted to knock her down for saying such a thing. The brat thought it was his wife's fault, and he couldn't let her get away with saying such a thing.

He watched her, trying to struggle out of his grip. Jess was breathing heavily and looked panicked, like a small child. Then it hit him. She was a child. She hadn't meant to offend him in any way, to place the blame on Katjaa. She was only trying to make him feel better. After all, he had been running around blaming himself.

Kenny stopped snarling and released his grip on the girl, walking back a few steps.

Jess dropped to the ground, trying to get her breath back as she rubbed her wrists. She could see the man in front of her back away further and further, quietly muttering to himself.

"I'm sorry, I just-" before he could finish, he turned and sprinted off into the woods alone.

* * *

"Lee!" Jess jumped back into the cart, where everyone sat silently. "Kenny just ran off on his own! You gotta find him!" Beth noticed that she was awfully tired-looking.

"Shit!" Lee jumped up, turning to Chuck. "Come one, lets go!" He turned to the older teen "Ben, you look after the girls, alright?" Ben started to protest, but fell quiet pretty quickly.

The three adults had been gone for almost thirty minutes now, and Clementine started to worry. Beth offered her a hug while trying to comfort her, which she hastily accepted.

"Maybe we... actually, never mind..." Ben started to say something, but quickly stopped when the three girls turned to him.

"No, go ahead." Beth looked at him inquisitively, waiting for him to continue.

"Maybe we should, you know, bury them or something." He gestured to the two bodies in the corner of the train, that seemed to stare lifeless at the kids. "Well, get some graves ready for a burial. We can't have their funeral without Kenny."

The two younger teens nodded, and Clementine soon agreed too.

Ben and Jess started to dig up a two-body-sized hole in the ground on the edge of the forest, while Beth took Clementine into the trees to find some flowers to place at the graves, and some sticks to make a headstone.

Clementine held onto Beth's hand through the walk, flinching away from every noise she heard.

"It's okay Clem. I picked up Kenny's gun, so we'll be fine." She tried to be reassuring, but to be honest, Beth was just as scared as Clementine.

After picking a few yellow flowers from a bush, and grabbing a few sticks from a fallen tree, the girls rushed back to the train, eager to get out of the woods.

When they got back, they noticed Ben struggling with digging a hole big enough for Katjaa. Jess seemed to be getting frustrated with him, and started to finish the grave for him. He seemed really nervous about something, and he kept his arms close to his body, as if blocking himself from the . He seemed to be on the verge if tears at every moment as well, his eyes getting wetter by the second.

Ben and Jess hauled Katjaa out of the cart with difficulty, while Beth picked up Duck and carried him over in her arms. She noticed his eyes were still fully open, and once he'd been placed in the grave with Clementine's flowers, she dragged her fingers across his face, closing them.

* * *

The three men walked back to the train, silence hanging over them like a cloud. They'd found Kenny in the worst state they'd seen him, running around in a clear area, tripping over nothing and collapsing. He'd even tried to get away from Lee, muttering something about staying away from the others. Lee'd eventually managed to coax him out of a pile of leaves, and started to guide him back.

They saw the kids sat by the train, talking amongst themselves. Clementine pointed to the approaching trio, and the youngsters ran over to them, eagerly trying to pull them back.

Lee started to panic because he thought something had happened, but when they saw the scene before them, they just stopped and stared.

Kenny could have swore it was one of the most beautiful things he'd seen since the apocalypse began. In large hole in the ground lay his wife and son huddled together as if comforting each-other, while flowers and leaves were placed tactically around to cover wounds and blood. Their eyes were shut and they looked so peaceful, as if sleeping.

Kenny thought he would cry, but in fact all he could do was smile.

"Who's idea was this?" Kenny asked, not wanting to take his eyes off of the grave in front of him.

"It was Ben's idea, but we all helped to do it!" Clementine trilled as she stood next to her guardian.

"Thanks..." Kenny seemed lost for words, wanting to both sing and cry at the same time. He turned to Jess, his smile disappearing. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that, it's just..." He gestured back to his dead kin. "I'm not normally like this." He looked kind of sheepish for a moment, but Jess just smiled.

"It's fine, I have to admit it wasn't the best choice of words at the time." The two nervously laughed for a moment, before Kenny turned to where Beth and Ben stood.

"Thank you Ben, this really... It means a lot to me." He placed a hand on Ben's shoulder and shook in playfully, to which the boy just flinched away.

"Give me a moment, then we can start the train up again." The group did as he said, and left Kenny to say his goodbyes, before they all hopped on the train and started to go again.

* * *

**A/N **

**I warned you I'd be changing it around! Please let me know what you think, as I really do love reviews (especially nice ones!). Any tips or ideas for further chapters are also appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

Things on the cart had gotten a little louder, but nothing seemed overly positive to the group right now.

Chuck and Lee had spent the time getting to know each other, while Clementine just dangled her feet out of the train and twiddled her hair. Still driving the train, Kenny looked out the smashed window, tears dripping off of his face as he fumbled around with the controls.

Beth was trying to wipe some of the blood off the side of the cart, while Jess helped with the floor. She just wanted something to take her mind away from all the death.

As weird as it seemed, Beth wanted to keep feeling some sort of pain for the loss of others. She didn't want to become numb to it, and she certainly didn't want to take pleasure in it like those monsters back at the farm.

Nobody took any notice of Ben as he leaned on the railing outside of the boxcar. He had his head in his hands while he twitched and mumbled unintelligible words to himself, and kept looking up to check if anyone was around. Lee and Chuck went to the front of the train with some form of alcohol, and Kenny joined Chuck as Lee went to get something.

As he came back, Ben looked up to him, nervously trying to get his attention. He had been working up the courage to do this before, but since what had happened with Duck and Katjaa, the little confidence had plummeted further.

"It was me. It was all me."

Lee looked at him in disbelief. He wanted to ask what he meant, why he was saying these words, but he knew exactly why. He knew what Ben had done.

"You? You did this? All of this shit, is your fault?" He looked up at the cowering teenager, noticing the tears in his blue eyes but ignoring them. "Tell me why the fuck I shouldn't push you off this goddamn train right now?"

"Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted to tell you because, oh god, all their blood. It's is on my hands! I can't cope with that Lee! Katjaa, Duck, Doug... He took a bullet for me because he believed I was innocent, and I'm not!" The boy's fear was replaced by sadness for a moment as he looked at Lee. "He was the closes thing I had to a friend since Travis."

"I don't care! I want to know WHY!" He grabbed the teenagers jacket and pushed him dangerously close to the edge.

"They said they had my classmates!" He shouted as he flailed his arms, trying to reach for the railings. "The bandits, they said they had someone from my school and if I didn't give them supplies theyd kill them. Then they'd come after us. I was just trying to help, I didn't mean to get everyone killed!" Bracing himself for an attack, Ben looked surprised and relieved as Lee pulled him back onto the train.

Just as Lee was about to walk away, Ben turned to him once again.

"Can you tell Kenny for me. He needs to know, and well, I don't want to be there when he finds out..."

"Ben look, I don't think it's a good idea to tell Kenny yet. Or ever. And I suggest you don't say anything either. Trust me." He waited until Ben gave him a wary nod of the head, and then turned back to the cart.

Scurrying away from the door as Lee approached it, Beth quickly rejoining Jess in cleaning the wall. She turned away from Lee as he looked at her suspiciously, but she could feel his eyes boring through the back of her head. He went down and sat next to Clementine, who quickly started to speak wither guardian.

Apparently Chuck had been saying something about how they needed a plan to survive, and after Jess and Beth had finished with the wall, he started to teach her how to shoot a gun.

Lastly, he picked up a pair of scissors, and bent down to Clementine's height.

"Hey Clem, I know this might not sound great but... Well, I need to cut your hair." The girls hands flew back to her tangled mop of hair, disbelief on her face. "In case one of those walkers grabs it. You'll be safer with it short, alright?"

"Okay..." With a long, irritated sigh, she sat down and let the man cut her hair. She held tightly onto her hat, so it didn't fly away. Once he was done, she felt around her short hair, and passed Lee some pink hair thingies that Lilly had given to her for sleeping. "It looks bad, doesn't it?"

"No, sweetpea, it looks fine!" He ruffled her hair and placed her hat back on her head.

He held the scissors out to the other girls, suggesting they did the same thing.

Jess immediately snatched the scissors out of his hands, grabbed her pony tail with one hand, and hacked of the whole thing in seconds. Her short hair fell down around her eyes, and she smiled stupidly at her friend.

"How do I look?" She asked as she tossed the handful of hair out the cart.

"Bloody ridiculous..." Beth answered with a groan.

"Swear!"

"Sorry Clem."

Beth also took her ponytail and reluctantly cut it, while trying to style in in some way that looked remotely... Okay.

"Where as I," she threw the hair out the side of the train and struck a crazy pose "Look fabulous!" She got the reaction she wanted, as Clementine burst into fits of giggles at her silliness. It was the happiest she'd seemed since they'd meet.

The train came to a sudden stop, and everyone jumped off as Kenny swore viciously from the front.

Lee quickly noticed the problem, a large truck full of some sort of liquid, probably dangerous, hung off the side of an over head bridge. A few moments later two figures started calling down to the group, inviting them up to see them. Kenny and Lee went up to meet them, while Clem silently followed them up. Ben was put on watch duty by Chuck, who sat in the boxcar.

The two younger teens wondered around awkwardly, before they decided to join Ben on top of the train.

"Hey," Jess waved to Ben as she climbed onto the train "You see anything?" She gestured out to the woods.

"Oh uh..." He stumbled over his words foolishly as he looked at his feet. "Nothing yet..."

"Jess, can you look after Clem?" Lee called down from the bridge as Clementine climbed back down the ladder. She nodded and hopped off the train, quickly running over to the girl.

"There are these two people called Omid and Christa, and they want to be in our group, and they seem really friendly and they use to have a cat!" Clementine chatted on to Jess, who persuasively pretended to take interest. Personally, she was more concerned with how the fuck they were gonna get that truck out of the way.

Meanwhile, back on top the train, Beth and Ben stood in a remotely awkward silence. Neither of them were what you would call conversation starters, and would rather stick with people they knew already. Ben did, however, have something he'd been meaning to speak about, to anybody who would listen.

"Look, I know this sounds weird but, if you'd lost the last thing closest to you, like a friend." He pointed to the other teen who sat with Clementine. "If you lost Jess, how far would you go find something... Familiar, and keep it safe?" He mumbled as he spoke, and his eyes still strayed to his feet.

"I guess quite far? I dunno." She too looked over at her friend, a saddened expression appearing on her face. "I don't think I've ever thought about losing Jess. She's the stronger out of us, the smarter, the faster too. I think she'll probably outlive me. But she can be... Reckless. I think she needs to realise that we're not going to survive on our own..." She suddenly turned back to Ben, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, went a bit off topic there. What I'm trying to say is, I've never considered loosing her, but whatever I'd do, it probably wouldn't be too clever."

Beth noticed Ben was starting to tear up a bit, and she quickly seemed concerned.

"Oh shit, did I say something? What did I say, oh my god are you alright?" She reached her hand out to his shoulder, but retracted it as he looked back at her.

"No, no, I'm fine. Sorry, it's just Jess sounds exactly like Travis..." He answered Beth's confused glance as he continued. "He was a close friend of mine: smart, sporty, confident. Don't know why he chose me as his friend. I thought he would outlive me too, after all, his dad was special forces." He nervously chuckled as he recalled how much his friend and loved to gloat about that fact. "I was with him when Lee and Kenny found us, but one of those fuckers caught him off guard."

He rubbed his eyes as he spoke, trying not to make a complete wimp of himself. He shoved his hands back into his pockets as he spoke.

"And then, I just wanted... Something. Something that seemed remotely similar, that could remind me of my old life, it was shit at times but way better than this."

"So, one night, I went outside when these bandits jumped me, and they threatened me saying if I didn't give them packages they'd kill me, and then they said they had someone from my school and... Oh god I just fucked up!" Beth could clearly see he was trembling now, but whether it was from fear or anger towards himself she couldn't tell. "They attacked us, and Duck got bite by a walker in the struggle. Lilly found out, and she started threatening me, but my friend Doug told her I was innocent. She tried to shoot me, and Doug took the bullet and just like that he was gone!" He looked back up at her, tears visibly flowing down his face.

"I dunno why I'm telling you all this, but fuck. I just deserve to die. And if one of those creatures grabs me, and I can't get out, then I'll opt out. I can't become one of those mindless creatures. I can't get more people killed."

A sudden surge of sympathy flowed through Beth as she thought through his words. But then something else. An idea. His 'fuck up' had literally saved the girls' life. The only reason they hadn't been shot on sight was because that boy, who had turned out to be Ben, had been feeding the bandits packages. She felt the need to tell him that his decision wasn't all bad, but just as she started to speak, something caught her eye in the distance.

"Ben..." He turned to see what she was pointing to, and pushed her forward as he jumped off the box car.

"Everyone, we need to go." His voice was loud but still shaky as he spoke. "NOW!"

The tanker fell and everyone got on the train, except for Lee and Omid, who were still on the bridge. The latter was quickly pushed of as he refused to jump, but he fell off the train with his leg twisted at an awkward angle, but he got up when Christa jumped out to fetch him. After Lee managed to pull them both up, Lee checked everyone was on board, gave Clementine a quick hug, and ran to the front with Kenny.

"So what were you talking about?" Jess asked as she sat down next to her friend. Beth looked over to Ben to ask if she could tell, but he shook his head violently, clearly suggesting the answer was no. Jess started to get impatient when she wouldn't answer, and gave out a long sigh.

"Was it love stuff?" She asked as she tilted her head. Beth replied with a disgusted face and a punch to her best friend's shoulder.

"Jess what the fuck?"

"I'm just askin-"

"Well the answers no. I don't even know him! Plus he's... How old are you?" The blonde teen turned to the older boy, who was both confused and blushing rather a lot.

"...seventeen..."

"Exactly, and I'm-"

"Fifteen"

"I know how old I am Jess." Beth replied with a flat expression.

Clementine, who had been in the front of the train with Lee and Kenny skipped back into the cart with a smile.

"We're at Savannah! Now we can find my parents!"


End file.
